England & Wales Hardwicke Marriage Index
Marriages 1754 - 1837
Copford St Michael & All Angels

The Parish

The parish of Copford lies in eastern Essex about 4 miles west of the town of Colchester. Copford sits on the former route of the A12 (Colchester to London) nowadays downgraded to the B1408 as the modern road has shifted northwards onto a very busy dual-carriageway. Copford, itself, is a bit of a strip village, largely built along the former main road whilst a secondary settlement of Copford Green lying almost a mile to the south is today almost joined by a run of properties along that lane. Like most rural Essex parishes Copford would have been intensively arable in its economy, today Copford sits only a couple of miles west of the expanding conurbation that is Colchester and functions very much as a dormitory suburb to its larger neighbour. Besides the busy A12 other modern developments include the rail line from Colchester to London which passes through Copford parish alongside that route. Copford is drained by the Roman River which heads southeastwards, passing south of Colchester to meet the outer Colne Estuary opposite Wivenhoe and thence to the North Sea. Copford is sited at around 30 metres above the sea in fairly gentle terrain where height rises barely a further 10 metres higher for many miles. Copford parish was fairly typically sized, if somewhat irregularly shaped, for its county covering just short of 2,400 acres it would have supported a population of close to 650 parishioners. In Domesday times Copford was held by the Bishop of London and was a middling sort of place offering 9 ploughs as well as the usual meadows & woodland.

The Church

St Michael & All Angels' church sits a little over a mile south of the main concentration of properties in the grounds of Copford Hall, a much altered house of the 17th century. For Pevsner to call the church "the most remarkable Norman parish church in Essex" is praise indeed and merited for its ancient construct as well as its formidable wall paintings from the medieval period. The church was built c1125-1130 at the behest of the London bishops who held the parish and was originally vaulted through nave, chancel and apse, the latter remaining today as a remarkable survival. The reuse of Roman bricks throughout is testament to the early origin of this church whilst even the medieval bricks are amongst the earliest in England. Of course there is later work, during the Perpendicular period and in particular in Victorian times where a restoration in the 1880s took place. Internally it is the medieval wall paintings which make this church ultra-special, being contemporary with the initial construction dates, although there has been some losses, in particular during that Victorian restoration, and some have been themselves restored the ensemble is striking and well worth a visit to behold. From Copford Green Aldecar Road heads eastwards around a series of tight bends to where a small sign points the way into the estate and to the church, parking is straightforward and the churchyard has few obstructions to photography.